Johannesburg, South Africa – A prominent businesswoman and head of a nursery school in Roodepoort on the West Rand will appear in the Roodepoort Regional Court on Monday after she was arrested last month on a charge of sexually molesting a young girl.

The woman, in her early 50s, is being accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a girl (who was four years old at the time) two years ago.

The alleged incidents presumably took place during “sleeping time at the school”, when the girl was apparently lured aside and molested.

The 33-year-old mother of the girl (who is now six), from Strubensvalley, Roodepoort, at the weekend claimed that the woman had used her authority to manipulate her child. “The worst part for me, as her mother, is that I was the one who left her in the care of these people.”

Bed-wetting

“I can only imagine how scared she must have been.”

The suspected victim’s mother and father, 37, became concerned in December 2007 during a holiday in the Western Cape, when the girl started wetting her bed up to three times a night.

She then started showing signs of excessive thirst.

Her concerned parents took her to a paediatrician, where bladder infection, glucose and blood tests were done.

All the test results were negative. During bath time, her parents noticed raw, chafed parts on their daughter’s body.

Mom had nervous breakdown

After various visits to paediatricians, clinical social workers, doctors and forensic social workers, the girl became confident enough to open up about the things that had happened to her.

“She begged and pleaded with me not to take her back to the school or to let her sleep there…” the girl’s mother told.

The couple removed their daughter from the school in August 2008, and informed the school of the preliminary investigation.

A case of sexual assault was opened at the Roodepoort police station in March 2009.

Released on bail

“I couldn’t sleep at night,” said the girl’s mother. Shortly after the case was opened, she was treated at the Life Wilgeheuwel Hospital after having a nervous breakdown.

“Parents think it’s normal for a child to act that way. My advice to parents is to follow their instincts. Parents must realise that such a change in personality is not normal,” said the mother, who could not be named in order to protect her child’s identity.

Captain Johan Pretorius, head of Roodepoort’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit arrested the woman at the nursery school on September 14, after medical reports were submitted to the police.

She spent a night in a police cell, before being released on R2 000 bail on September 15. The accused woman’s name may not be published before she has pleaded on the charges she is facing.